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Dopecentury XVI --- The Phenomenon

This short fiction is part of Dopecentury, an experimental project where I attempt to channel the aural aesthetics of Dopesmoker into written text. (Dopesmoker is the legendary stoner-doom metal masterpiece by the band Sleep, of which it is said: "the monotony rarely becomes tedious.") My plan is to listen to the single hour-long track of Dopesmoker while writing each of these "Dopecentury" entries. And repeat that 100 times. See the Dopecentury project page for more details.

Overview

Despite all evidence to the contrary, rumors persist. The rumors are neither supported by research into the phenomenon, nor are they rooted in any demonstrably factual events or history. The rumors are also not derived from any kind of cultural beliefs beyond what might be connected to popular media. That is to say, to the best of our knowledge, the rumors of the phenomenon have no history from before broadly similar concepts were propagated by popular Hollywood films in the 1980s. (Other than tangential relationship to the more abstract concept of a "fountain of youth," which obviously stretches back centuries. We shall be examining that relationship in this report though, as we feel it is too, as we say, tangential.)

We begin with this paragraph because we feel we must state at the outset: according to all available evidence there are no locations anywhere in the world where swimming at night has the properties of slowing the aging process. These claims are pure speculation and rumor – where they are not hoaxes outright. The fact that these rumors persist, perhaps even grow, to this day after 40 years of examination is perhaps the most mysterious aspect of the phenomenon.

A brief history

Claims of restored youth through night swimming (hereafter known as the RYNS phenomenon) are widely documented over a period of roughly the last 40 years. However, analysis has shown that there are no claims of RYNS that predate a related concept showing up in popular movies.1 It was within a few years of these movies gaining popularity that claims of real-life RYNS began to show up in travel advertising for certain Pacific island vacation destinations.1 A less cynical interpretation of this timeline is that certain less-popular but savvy destinations initially promoted RYNS locations on their islands as a purely metaphorical concept — that is to say something like: vacation here to feel like you have regained your youth. The record of advertising from the period is incomplete and the copy that is available somewhat nebulous in meaning.2 Whatever the intentions of the initial advertisers, within a matter of years there were literal claims of RYNS being advertised for specific locations.1 Though, it must be noted, always with a caveat of "for entertainment purposes only."

From there, it was only a matter of time before certain celebrities and a number of high-profile pseudo-scientists were claiming RYNS at specific locations.1 Whether these people truly believed in the phenomenon or were covertly compensated to make the claims remains unexamined. But it is these claims from sources that many people deem trustworthy that kept the possibility that the RYNS phenomenon was real alive into the internet age. Without these people, RYNS likely would have faded into history instead of remaining a powerful force in the alternative-healing communities.

The Phenomenon

What exactly is claimed by RYNS is important to understand since we are interested in how something so obviously and stupidly untrue could persist in the modern era. RYNS claims almost always take a non-specific form: swimming at night in this particular cove of this particular island makes the RYNS practitioner feel immediately younger. The effects from a single swim, or a few nights of swimming, are claimed to last for an entire year or more. (Conveniently conducive to return vacations.) The effects are generally listed as: renewed vigor and energy; tighter, clearer, and less-wrinkled skin; thicker hair; better muscle-tone; and less overall pain. There are many who claim that long-term effects include a complete pause in the aging process. Some claim they expect to live forever while remaining the age they currently are by swimming annually in one of the RYNS locations. No claims of reverse aging are made.

Why any particular location and why it must be swimming at night as opposed to any other time of day remains unexplained, other than that ritualistic behavior generally has detailed requirements.

Evidence

There is simply no evidence that RYNS is a real phenomenon.3 A number of attempts have been made to analyze both the specific locations where RYNS is claimed to take place and the subjects who claim benefits from RYNS. All subjects who have claimed benefit of RYNS show no more empirically youthful qualities than control subjects after engaging in RYNS. (Other than, as one researcher could not help but point out, the very real benefits being on vacation and swimming regularly offer to anyone.) No subject who claimed long-term benefits of RYNS could be shown to have slowed or stopped the aging process. The high-profile subjects of the 1980s who claimed to have stopped aging are all showing normal signs of aging (or death) 40 years later.

All professional and expert review shows RYNS to be an entirely manufactured concept.

Analysis

The fascinating thing about RYNS is not the wild claims or the fact that it is patently untrue. It's that it is an untrue phenomenon that persists from a time period where it was relatively easy to propagate a hoax (the 1980s) through to the modern day where it is just as strongly believed in despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Prior to the internet age, propagating a hoax was a matter of simply getting a few vaguely-credible people to spread the word of your hoax. As long as a hoax flew under the radar of a major news or academic investigation, there was no means to check the validity. Rumors and false claims might easily (though slowly) spread by word-of-mouth, and a false claim could gain traction and persist for quite a long time without anyone substantially questioning its validity.

Today, it is not just in academic and professional journals that RYNS has been debunked. Popular websites like Wikiedia and Snopes show the clear evidence that the phenomenon is false to anyone who cares to look. It is easily accessed and incontrovertible.

This applies not just to RYNS but to all sorts of hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and culture jamming pranks. In this internet age, these things are quickly debunked and easily checked up on by anyone. One would think that because of this we would now live in an age of empirical truths. And to some extent that is true, in that it is nearly impossible to spread a hoax or prank that has an direct cause-and-effect relationship with policy or business activities.

However, at the same time we live in an age where a huge portion of the population appears to be willing to believe in hoaxes and conspiracies despite any and all evidence to the contrary. No amount of level-headed fact-checking influences this group. And it is among them that claims of RYNS live on.

How to explain this: that we now live in a world where it is both impossible to create a hoax and yet conspiracy theories spread faster and further than ever? We suggest that RYNS could prove a useful test-case for picking apart this phenomenon — which is the only real phenomenon when it comes to RYNS.

  1. Galvin and Friedman, Restored Youth Through Night Swimming: Tracing Phenomenal Claims, From Film Into Culture. Journal of Phenomenological Culture, 1997. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  2. Lopez, Compendium of 1980s Tropical Vacation Opportunities. Advertising History Quarterly, 2001. ↩

  3. Rangel, Meta-Analysis of Reports on Restored Youth Through Night Swimming (RYNS)/ Journal of Phenomenological Culture, 2000. ↩